Trump arrives in Turkey for high-stakes NATO summit
President Donald Trump arrives in Ankara, Turkey, for a high-stakes NATO Summit. Key discussions contain the F-35 fighter jet program, Turkey’s S-400 Russian protection system acquisition and elevated protection spending from NATO allies. Fox Information’ Lucas Tomlinson studies the most recent and Dr. Rebecca Grant weighs in.
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A prime Democratic senator admitted on CBS Information that he believes President Donald Trump “correctly” made the vital demand to NATO allies to spend extra on protection.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Sick., who’s in Turkey this week as a part of a bipartisan congressional delegation to NATO, spoke with CBS Information when an anchor laughingly requested him about Trump’s “unusual relationship with NATO over his push for them to spend extra on safety.” The anchor requested Durbin, “The place does this relationship go from right here?”
In response, Durbin described Trump’s relationship with NATO as a “back-and-forth, love-and-hate relationship.” He went on to say that “the president has, I believe, correctly requested for our NATO allies, there are 32 members of NATO, to spend extra of their very own cash to guard themselves.”
“That’s not an unreasonable ask,” he added.
TRUMP ENTERS FINAL NATO SUMMIT DAY AS UKRAINE, DEFENSE SPENDING TAKE CENTER STAGE
Sen. Dick Durbin (proper), D-Sick., mentioned that President Donald Trump (left) “correctly” requested NATO allies to extend their protection spending. (SAUL LOEB / AFP by way of Getty Photos; Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos)
Durbin, who has served within the Senate for practically 30 years, is the minority whip and rating member of the influential Judiciary Committee. He’s in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, as a part of a congressional delegation led by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., to the 2026 NATO Summit. Trump can be attending the summit, accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth and Nationwide Safety Adviser Michael Waltz.
Durbin didn’t spend all his time praising the president. Talking from Ankara, he went on to say that “there have been issues that occurred throughout his second presidency which raised the query of our dedication to the way forward for NATO.”
“I consider in it; that’s why I’m right here. And I’ve discovered that of the delegates which can be right here from everywhere in the area, a part of NATO, that they consider, as I do, that we’re a safer world with the NATO alliance. We have now been since 1945.”
TRUMP BETS ON FORMER NATO TROUBLEMAKER AS TURKEY’S STRATEGIC VALUE SURGES
President Donald Trump stands subsequent to NATO Secretary Common Mark Rutte and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as NATO leaders collect for a household photograph at a NATO leaders’ summit in Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026. (Stoyan Nenov/Reuters)
He added that the summit “will probably be a possibility for us to persuade the president, if we now have to, to maneuver ahead with this relationship.”
Earlier than touring to Turkey for the summit, Trump vented his frustration about NATO, writing in a social media publish that “the USA spends more cash on NATO than another nation, by far, to guard them, with out getting any profit from so doing: U.S. 999 Billion {Dollars}, United Kingdom, 90.5 Billion {Dollars}, France, 66.5 Billion {Dollars}, Italy, 48.8 Billion {Dollars}, Poland, 44.3 Billion {Dollars}. Others, together with Germany, are MUCH LOWER. (2014-2025) Ridiculous!”
A NATO launch said that the “closing date for data used on this report was 3 June 2025” and that “figures for 2024 and 2025 are estimates.” It listed estimated 2025 U.S. protection spending at $980 billion, the UK’s at $90.508 billion, France’s at $66.531 billion, Italy’s at $48.8 billion and Poland’s at $44.314 billion.
TRUMP CALLS OUT NATO AHEAD OF SUMMIT, CALLING IT ‘RIDICULOUS’ FOR US TO PERSIST ON ‘ONE SIDED PATH’
NATO emblem is seen, whereas the NATO Summit is held within the metropolis, in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 12, 2023 (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto by way of Getty Photos)
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In one other publish, Trump mentioned it’s “ridiculous for the usA. to proceed alongside this one sided path when the connection shouldn’t be reciprocal. They weren’t there for us!!!”
The president’s feedback got here after NATO leaders backed a brand new protection spending benchmark calling on allies to speculate 5% of gross home product in protection and defense-related expenditures.
Fox Information Digital’s Alex Nitzberg and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
